Basketball is back. And already talk in New York has turned to how another superstar can be added to the fold.
While I haven't thought about the Knicks much yet, there are two things that I did contemplate:
1) Whether using the new iteration of the amnesty clause on Renaldo Balkman made much sense.
2) Whether Chris Paul was the target to go after with any incremental cap space.
As it relates to the first issue, my concern was always that since Amare's contract could not be insured, due to past knee injuries, there was no reason to rush to any decision on use of the escape valve, just in case he happens to go down. I am comforted by a recent ESPN article that suggested a similar logic has been making the rounds at MSG.
With respect to second point, I always thought, if you're gonna dream, you might as well do it big. So, I was happy to see the following article that makes the case for how snagging Dwight Howard is not a total pipe dream. That outcome is what makes the Knicks unbeatable against a Big 3, Big 4 or Big 10. I suspect it won't happen, but at least we're talking about a non-zero percent chance, especially if the Knicks front office tackles the idea with a similar mind to Ian O'Connor.
